Group Booking Discount

[cidercity1987]

http://www.bcfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,1...1144480,00.html

If you buy 10 student/u16s tickets for a single match, you get 1 free. Not applicable to adults. Fair play to BCFC for offering it, but it just seems like another nonstarter. Who is ever going to use that?

[Nibor]

It's like asking if you'd like some free fluffy dice with that spanking new mercedes.

I'd dearly love to know how many bookings of 10+ tickets they get right now... I'd bet maybe one per match?

It might make slightly more sense if they were actually trying to market towards student's unions and such but even then a less than 10% discount doesn't make enough difference for people to decide to come to the game that wouldn't usually.

If it was buy four get one free it *might* add a few to the gate.

[Alex_BCFC]

Exactly my thinking- waste of time.

But what exactly do City do for new students starting in Bristol? When I went there I never saw anything advertising the fact there was a football club in the City. Surely they could strike up a deal with UWE or the uni?

[Laner]

Exactly my thinking- waste of time.

But what exactly do City do for new students starting in Bristol? When I went there I never saw anything advertising the fact there was a football club in the City. Surely they could strike up a deal with UWE or the uni?

Why waste money on advertising that Bristol has football teams to students?

If students coming to Bristol are football fans then they will already know Bristol has at least one team and find out where the teams play. If they are not football fans then it's very unlikely they'd go anyway, so why spend money telling them something they'd not be interested in anyway?

[rockin-robin]

Why waste money on advertising that Bristol has football teams to students?

If students coming to Bristol are football fans then they will already know Bristol has at least one team and find out where the teams play. If they are not football fans then it's very unlikely they'd go anyway, so why spend money telling them something they'd not be interested in anyway?

To an extent, I disagree with what you lot have said. At least BCFC are trying ideas to get more bums on seats.

I do however think it is the wrong approach, and by aiming it more towards adults would make it far mor appealing....after all, in general, adults are the ones with the most disposable income.

Also, 10 people is a lot to get together in one go. On the flip side, any advertising outside the normal channels must be a good thing?

[cidercity1987]

Exeter City are quite proactive in sending around flyers in halls of residence and the student houses emphasising the discount we can get. I've been to watch them a few times and there's always a load of students there. 1 of my housemates goes regularly, and he wasn't a huge footy fan, just caught the bug having seen a flyer.

No doubt BCFC should do more of that. But then the club seem to think why sell a ticket to a student for £15 when they can sell it to an adult for £25. That might be a fair argument if we ever sold out...

I guess this new buy 10, get 11th free is a start though!

[Nibor]

Why waste money on advertising that Bristol has football teams to students?

If students coming to Bristol are football fans then they will already know Bristol has at least one team and find out where the teams play. If they are not football fans then it's very unlikely they'd go anyway, so why spend money telling them something they'd not be interested in anyway?

This is just defeatist thinking. With that rationale there's no point to ever marketing a football club and little to advertising in general.

There are several good reasons to market to students:

1) Those with a passing interest with football but no particular affiliation could well become fans.

2) Those who are already football fans with an affiliation may well come along just to watch a few games and follow us a second side - plenty of people do this when at uni.

3) Students often do things in groups, get one interested and you may well find four or five tagging along.

4) Of those not from Bristol a large proportion stay here after graduating and work and start families. When it's time 10 years from now for an ex student to take his boy to his first game I would think there's a good chance he'd go for the local club that at least made an effort to try and entice him.

Bottom line is if this club wants to be successful in the long term the fan base needs to be bigger and that's going to involve all demographics, ignoring one group of potential fans would be plain silly IMO.

[Laner]

This is just defeatist thinking. With that rationale there's no point to ever marketing a football club and little to advertising in general.

There are several good reasons to market to students:

1) Those with a passing interest with football but no particular affiliation could well become fans.

2) Those who are already football fans with an affiliation may well come along just to watch a few games and follow us a second side - plenty of people do this when at uni.

3) Students often do things in groups, get one interested and you may well find four or five tagging along.

4) Of those not from Bristol a large proportion stay here after graduating and work and start families. When it's time 10 years from now for an ex student to take his boy to his first game I would think there's a good chance he'd go for the local club that at least made an effort to try and entice him.

Bottom line is if this club wants to be successful in the long term the fan base needs to be bigger and that's going to involve all demographics, ignoring one group of potential fans would be plain silly IMO.

As someone who works in advertising and marketing, I fully understand and agree with your points.

My comment was made solely in reaction to a former new student suggesting City should advertise simply because, "I never saw anything advertising the fact there was a football club in the City". Exactly how much information do new students need these days? And if this information is not 'drip fed' to them, they seem incapable of being able to find things out for themselves.

[Nibor]

As someone who works in advertising and marketing, I fully understand and agree with your points.

My comment was made solely in reaction to a former new student suggesting City should advertise simply because, "I never saw anything advertising the fact there was a football club in the City". Exactly how much information do new students need these days? And if this information is not 'drip fed' to them, they seem incapable of being able to find things out for themselves.

Fair enough.

I'm sure they can find out information about the club easily enough but I think there are a fair few students who whilst they might not think of going to watch a City game off their own back might be amenable to it with a bit of prompting.

A decent offer that made the tickets look truly enticing coupled with some simple marketing like flyers and posters at union bars and the like would probably have some appeal I think.

I would have thought football (in general) was a marketing type's dream, lots of potential for repeat business + some celebrity to sell it with all in one.

[Barry]

Exactly my thinking- waste of time.

But what exactly do City do for new students starting in Bristol? When I went there I never saw anything advertising the fact there was a football club in the City. Surely they could strike up a deal with UWE or the uni?

I go to the university of manchester and the uni has a deal with man city where the uni is allocated a certain amount of seats for each game. its at a special price for the uni (normally around £13 i think), so we have to show our manchester student cards to buy them.

it seems to be very popular.

i know man city are a bigger club, but i think they show the right attitude, maybe we could operate something similar on a smaller scale

[Alex_BCFC]

I go to the university of manchester and the uni has a deal with man city where the uni is allocated a certain amount of seats for each game. its at a special price for the uni (normally around £13 i think), so we have to show our manchester student cards to buy them.

it seems to be very popular.

i know man city are a bigger club, but i think they show the right attitude, maybe we could operate something similar on a smaller scale

Exactly. To ignore this part of potential support is madness IMO.

[Stoke_Gifford_Red]

Exactly my thinking- waste of time.

But what exactly do City do for new students starting in Bristol? When I went there I never saw anything advertising the fact there was a football club in the City. Surely they could strike up a deal with UWE or the uni?

Not quite the same, but down in Cornwall both Falmouth and Truro are proactive in trying to entice the relatively large (and rapidly growing) student population to their games.

[East End Lad]

To be honest I think its a bit of a poor attempt at increasing attendace. Its no doubt a start, everyone can accept that but I wonder how many bookings of 10 they get at the moment. I also doubt that getting a 11th ticket free would persuade a group of friends to come that much more. What could work though is maybe sending this information to kids football clubs in the local area. I'm sure many of them could easily use that sort of deal to their advantage, while it is also marketing to the fans of the future.

[Bristol Boy]

I won't comment on the buying habits of students & U16's as I've no recent knowledge on that subject-however.

I can't imagine how you firstly get 11 people interested at the same time, especially if they're not City fans and will spending £130 in total, always providing they pay cash, buy in advance and in person, be that much more attractive than £143 and make someone do all the running around to organise it? If they do it on the phone and by card it works out at about a fiver off.

The other point is I wonder why the club are offering special deals at a time when The Chairman thinks the prices are right-Seems very odd.

[old_man_terry]

Fair enough.

I'm sure they can find out information about the club easily enough but I think there are a fair few students who whilst they might not think of going to watch a City game off their own back might be amenable to it with a bit of prompting.

A decent offer that made the tickets look truly enticing coupled with some simple marketing like flyers and posters at union bars and the like would probably have some appeal I think.

I would have thought football (in general) was a marketing type's dream, lots of potential for repeat business + some celebrity to sell it with all in one.

exactly, something like this isn't exactly going to cost much to advertise, few posters and flyers around the Uni's could generate a bit of interest, considering there is supposed to a student population in Bristol of around 13k even if it just attracts a few groups to the club then it could generate some interest.

I doubt Students are going to be looking at who the local clubs are playing but if it is advertised with a few posters, you never know, the discount is very much a token gesture and is more about trying to get an large group of people in, rather than offering a discount,

plus with the amount of pubs nearby in North Street they can make an evening of it,

worth a pop I suppose, at least they are trying to be pro-active and are actually trying to encourage any newcomers to Bristol to show an interest in Bristol City,

[City_pete1]

Why waste money on advertising that Bristol has football teams to students?

If students coming to Bristol are football fans then they will already know Bristol has at least one team and find out where the teams play. If they are not football fans then it's very unlikely they'd go anyway, so why spend money telling them something they'd not be interested in anyway?

Disagree. I went to uni here in bristol a few years ago and a lot of my mates I met at uni came to city games with me. Some of them still come and watch city with me now, having graduated a few years ago.. One guy supports Arsenal but sees city as his 'second team' now.

That said, I still think buy 10 get 1 free is a complete waste of time!

[BS3_RED]

if you want to increase gates just sign a Polish player. There are thousands of them in Bristol and they just might want to come along.

[Barrs Court Red]

if you want to increase gates just sign a Polish player. There are thousands of them in Bristol and they just might want to come along.

I think we should be looking to attract in the Polish. I really do think it could be a grower. I worked with a few lithuanians and they turned up at a match a couple of years ago, out of the blue. Decided to give it a try. The appetite is there, and there are community centers and shops that could be the perfect outlet for leaflets.

[Bristol Boy]

I think we should be looking to attract in the Polish. I really do think it could be a grower. I worked with a few lithuanians and they turned up at a match a couple of years ago, out of the blue. Decided to give it a try. The appetite is there, and there are community centers and shops that could be the perfect outlet for leaflets.

Great idea and I like the one about the students as well-It will all help-However we shouldn't take our eyes off the key factor and that is the prices have to be realistic, even moreso for the casual fan.

[giles_23_bcfc]

How about tickets for school kids? i don't mean primary school kids, but secondary school kids, ideally around the 12-15 year olds. These are more likely to be kids who are interested in football, that havent really thought much about paying to go to a game in case they don't like it. If they got free tickets from the school like the club sometimes does, then if they see a game like the West Brom game or Sheffield United then they might want to come again. Adding another 500 or so at least to the attendance.

I know that this way the club arent making money on the day, but if half of these kids like what they see and get the football bug, then in the shorter long run, its going to help the club. especially with the 14-15 yr olds who will be old enough to work in a yr or 2 and earn money to go down alot more and even buy a season ticket. (Prices in their budget of course BB).

[Laner]

Disagree. I went to uni here in bristol a few years ago and a lot of my mates I met at uni came to city games with me. Some of them still come and watch city with me now, having graduated a few years ago.. One guy supports Arsenal but sees city as his 'second team' now.

That said, I still think buy 10 get 1 free is a complete waste of time!

Great to hear... but as football fans you'd have all surely known Bristol has professional football teams?

My original comment was not so much on attracting students (attracting anyone and increasing our fans base is fantastic) but in reaction to an ex-students comments suggesting we should advertise simply the fact that Bristol has a football team!

[City_pete1]

Great to hear... but as football fans you'd have all surely known Bristol has professional football teams?

My original comment was not so much on attracting students (attracting anyone and increasing our fans base is fantastic) but in reaction to an ex-students comments suggesting we should advertise simply the fact that Bristol has a football team!

From my experience, out of the people that would come to games with me, they all knew city had 2 teams.

However, Bristol Rovers did always have a stand at the UWE Freshers fair trying to attract fans! ! !

[tombcfc]

I agree the club are definitely missing out on a big source of fans with the student market.

I'm a student in Birmingham and remember seeing posters for 2 student tickets to the Villa v Man City game for £20. I'm a city season ticket holder, but I thought it would be good to see some football in Brum... but they had all sold out by the time I tried to buy them. I know this was a premiership game, but it would suggest there is demand for football amongst students!!

Maybe one or two deals like this offered by City at the start of the student year would get more of us through the gates over the season. It would need to be well advertised around the student union or halls though as people aren't going to actively search for this sort of thing

Tom

[bringbacktherobin]

Ive got Venue 2007/2008 Student guide for Bristol And Bath, its filled with pages of offers. This has probably been issued to all college and uni's in the bristol and bath region

Two of the vouchers are cheap student tickets of Bath City at home, there isnt a single mention of Bristol City in the book.

If Bath City can do it why cant we.

[EXETER RED]

It has made at least a boost to the attendance for the home game against Southampton. There is a coach load.....YES a full coach leaving Exeter for the game and they are only paying a pound each for the coach. I bloody hope they can organise that for every home game from now on.

[bringbacktherobin]

How did they get the coach for a pound?

[EXETER RED]

How did they get the coach for a pound?

not sure at the mo, but if they organise another I'm booking two seats ...........